David Lewis Paget

The Crypt

I’d only been home for a week or twoAnd Jeanine was acting queer, Each time she’d pass the mirror she’d stareAnd I heard her say, ‘Oh dear! ’I’d been away for five long yearsBut she hadn’t changed a bit, Each time I’d ask, she’d cover her ears: ‘I have to go to The Crypt! ’

I thought that she meant the local clubWhere they drank and danced all night, ‘Aren’t you a little too old for that, ’I’d say, and her face turned white.‘You’re only as old as you feel, ’ she snapped, ‘If only, ’ was my reply, ‘Whether we like it or not, we age, And then, we finally die.’

She put her hands to her ears, and shrieked, ‘Don’t ever say that to me! You can die, but I’ll still go on, I’ll be what I want to be.’I stood quite shocked as she raved, she criedAnd turned and ran from the room, I didn’t know what to make of her, So sat, half stunned in the gloom.

She’d always worried about her looksHad made up her face for hours, I’d said, ‘You’re really compulsive, Sis, ’She’d take innumerable showers.I said, ‘You’re washing yourself away, There’ll be no oil in your skin.’‘But don’t you think that I’m beautiful, ’She’d say, with an evil grin.

She’d never married, but dated menWho would compliment on her looks, ‘He said I’m like Cleopatra, ’ or, ‘Like Helen of Troy in the books! ’‘Words are cheap, ’ I would say to herAnd she’d fly right into a rage, ‘You’re always trying to put me down! ’‘You’re like a bird in a cage!

Always fluffing your feathers upTo say, ‘Hey look at me! ’Don’t you care for the things in lifeThat are not complimentary? ’But she would shrug and ignore me thenShe was vain beyond compare, I didn’t know that she’d signed a pact With the Devil, in her despair.

The weeks went by and her mood got worse, She was nervous, I could see, Her hands would tremble and she would curseApplying her toiletry.The wrinkles set in around her eyes‘So much for that cream I bought! I’ll have to go to The Crypt, ’ she cried, And burst in tears at the thought.

One day I spied her out in the streetDown by a ruined church, She forced her way past the battened doorAnd disappeared with a lurch.I waited hours, out there in the streetTo see when she’d reappear, Then realised she’d gone to the cryptIn the bowels of that church, in there.

She came out walking, as in a trance, So beautiful, redefined, I couldn’t believe the change in her, I thought that I’d lost my mind.The girl I saw was only a shellOf the woman who once was whole, Whoever she’d met in that evil cryptHad walked away with her soul!